From waiter to "Selfpublishing God" in 6 months

[MrProductive]

Hello Fastlaners!

Let me first state, the title "Selfpublishing God" was given to me by people from another community (in Germany). That being said, humility is not my strong suit

Like most, my story is quite long, but you're all busy, so I make it short.

Last year in April I came back from a backpacking trip, basically broke and went back into my old job as waiter. I couldn't stand in anymore and wanted to leave my home country, Germany, again. As soon as possible. Permanently, with a decent online-income.

Some fruitless weeks with 12-hour working days later, I partnered up with a guy who did self-publishing. He started it in April last year and I joined him in June. He was doing pretty well already, but wanted to scale the business. We got along very well and complimented each others skills and ideas. Since then we published over 200 books, all in German.

The business was doing really well, but for different reasons we will part ways by the end of this year.

After hitting 3k/month I noticed that money is not a big motivation for me. 3k gives me a luxury lifestyle where I live (Thailand). So I basically stopped working for the last couple of months and enjoyed the benefits of passive income.

After listening to Rich Dad, Poor Dad and then The Millionaire Fastlane I feel motivated again to work and go after more money. Not for more luxury, but more freedom and security. I want to come to a point in my life, where I can, if I want to, stop working and not have to think about earning money ever again.

That doesn't mean I do not want to work, it just means I want to choose freely when, on what and for which purpose I will work on something.

P.S. If anyone is in Bangkok, let me know.

 

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[Ika]

Welcome to this forum!
Congratulations on publishing that many books in that time - I'm interested in where you are heading. Check out @ChickenHawk progress thread about self publishing, it might help you.

I'm curious though, why did they call you "SP God"? Because of the sheer number of books?

Viel Erfolg bei deinem nächsten Unternehmen und viel Spaß in Thailand

 

[MrProductive]

Thanks @Ika.

They call me that because of the number of books, the generated revenue, the almost automated workflows I created and the workshops I was giving. While almost everyone focused on multiple projects at the same time I focused on SP for more than 6 months and became pretty good at and an authority. Although I keep my profile low. Outside that small German community, no one knows what I am doing and I like it that way for now

 

[MJ DeMarco]

What topics do you write about? Fiction? Non-fiction? Romance? YA? Thriller?

 

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[Nily]

Hello Fastlaners!

Let me first state, the title "Selfpublishing God" was given to me by people from another community (in Germany). That being said, humility is not my strong suit

Like most, my story is quite long, but you're all busy, so I make it short.

Last year in April I came back from a backpacking trip, basically broke and went back into my old job as waiter. I couldn't stand in anymore and wanted to leave my home country, Germany, again. As soon as possible. Permanently, with a decent online-income.

Some fruitless weeks with 12-hour working days later, I partnered up with a guy who did self-publishing. He started it in April last year and I joined him in June. He was doing pretty well already, but wanted to scale the business. We got along very well and complimented each others skills and ideas. Since then we published over 200 books, all in German.

The business was doing really well, but for different reasons we will part ways by the end of this year.

After hitting 3k/month I noticed that money is not a big motivation for me. 3k gives me a luxury lifestyle where I live (Thailand). So I basically stopped working for the last couple of months and enjoyed the benefits of passive income.

After listening to Rich Dad, Poor Dad and then The Millionaire Fastlane I feel motivated again to work and go after more money. Not for more luxury, but more freedom and security. I want to come to a point in my life, where I can, if I want to, stop working and not have to think about earning money ever again.

That doesn't mean I do not want to work, it just means I want to choose freely when, on what and for which purpose I will work on something.

P.S. If anyone is in Bangkok, let me know.

Over 200 books published in 6 months?

You are a machine.

And welcome to the forum.

 

[Dissio]

What topics do you write about? Fiction? Non-fiction? Romance? YA? Thriller?

"How to make money" niche

 

[MrProductive]

What topics do you write about? Fiction? Non-fiction? Romance? YA? Thriller?

Actually, I am not writing at all. I let other people write for me. So, technically, Self-Publishing is not the right term .
But all books are non-fiction in a wide range of topics.

Over 200 books published in 6 months?

You are a machine.

And welcome to the forum.

Sorry, there was some miscommunication. It took me 6 months from waiter to become really good at publishing. The 200 books haven been published over a period of 18 months.

"How to make money" niche

Haha. That's one of the niches I am not publishing in. But a lot of other how to books. (Weight loss, muscle gain, meditation etc).

 

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[Omni]

Wow, congrats on your publishing speed and welcome to the forum! I'm curious on how you go about your book promotion in the german market?

 

[miked_d]

Welcome!

Will you continue in publishing or will you try something new?

 

[MrProductive]

Wow, congrats on your publishing speed and welcome to the forum! I'm curious on how you go about your book promotion in the german market?

I don't do much promotion. I put my effort into finding a topic, keyword optimization and reviews and all combined with a high-quality book. That works pretty well. But the marketing in Germany is very limited on Amazon. For example, we do not have countdown deals in Germany.

Welcome!

Will you continue in publishing or will you try something new?

For now, I will continue doing this, because it's easy and gives me a good income stream. But this is not something where I think I will become a millionaire with.

 

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[Lucious]

Congrats on your success.

Do you believe your books are doing so well because they are written in German and have less competition?
What do you believe would be the out come if they were written in English?

Also do you only use one publisher name or multiple?

 

[MrProductive]

Do you believe your books are doing so well because they are written in German and have less competition?
What do you believe would be the out come if they were written in English?

No. I believe they are doing so well, because I tried out a lot myself and did not just listen to what other "experts" are saying. A lot of that is just plain wrong in my experience. I think the key is proper market research before I start producing a book. Before I start producing, I know exactly what the market wants, so success is quite likely. But, it is easier to stand out in Germany, of course. I think I could do the same in English, but it would mean much more work and faster "innovation", because there is so much competition. Since I do not want this to be my forever-business, I do not want to invest so much time and effort, but use it as an easy way to generate income.

Also do you only use one publisher name or multiple?

Many different ones. For every niche I have at least one, sometimes even multiple ones. I never use one pen name for different niches, unless they are closely related.